Somewhere between a movie trailer and a ticket purchase, a Spider-Man fan had a choice to make: who should be their Spider Mentor? For Sony Pictures’ Across the Spider-Verse, Digital Media Management helped turn a promotional phone number into the Spider Society. Subscribers picked a guide, received character voice messages and took part in missions. A marketing list acquired a little of the pleasure of a club.
- DMM sells the strategy, content and people behind social campaigns.
- Its specialty is entertainment: worlds that already give fans something to care about.
- The useful lesson: design a role for the audience, then staff the response.
The revealing detail is the labor. DMM says it ran 47 text campaigns and spent more than 35 hours replying to fans. Someone had to be there after the invitation went out. The technology made a relationship possible; the replies gave it substance.
A choice worth answering
In DMM’s account, 88.2% of subscribers selected a mentor. Its reported average click-through rate reached 61.77%, compared with a stated entertainment benchmark of 19.5%. These are campaign figures reported by the agency, rather than an independent measurement of ticket sales. Still, they describe something specific: people accepted an invitation that belonged inside the story.
DMM’s campaign-reported comparison on Community. Descriptive results, not a controlled test.
This is a useful way into DMM’s business. Studios, streamers, game publishers and consumer brands hire it to plan social campaigns, make the material, manage channels, recruit creators and place paid media. Its expertise sits at the intersection of production and fan behavior. An account needs enough knowledge of the fictional world to sound welcome there.
Founded by Luigi Picarazzi in 2010, DMM began by helping talent navigate digital life. That origin matters. An actor’s audience, a studio’s account and a fan community overlap without being interchangeable. Working across them means understanding whose voice belongs where, and what each participant gets from showing up. A promotional plan becomes more useful when those differences survive the planning meeting.
Barbie had more than one voice
For Warner Bros.’ Barbie, that meant giving the campaign four personas. Cheerleader Barbie celebrated the cast and collaborators. Be What You Want to Be Barbie encouraged participation. Barbenheimer Barbie joined the conversation around the two films. Big Screen Barbie asked people to go to the cinema. Each voice had an assignment.
The assignments changed with the conversation. Keywords’ account describes an early emphasis on nostalgia and novelty that evolved toward fresh engagement as the film’s narrative emerged. This is a documented adjustment, rather than evidence that the original campaign failed. DMM also built press-tour Stories and scripted questions for a TikTok tour diary. Listening and production had to travel together.
DMM reports 62.8 million engagements and 273.9 million impressions across the campaign’s social platforms. Those totals suggest substantial activity. They cannot isolate the agency’s contribution from a famous doll, a film, its stars and the rest of a worldwide marketing effort. The replicable detail is the division of jobs within a consistent voice.
The casual post has a backstage
DMM’s range becomes clearer in a less cinematic setting: Squishmallows Headquarters. For Jazwares’ 2024 celebration, the agency produced two prerecorded Instagram broadcasts. Its team handled scripts, hosts, crew, a studio set, editing and publishing. A cat-ear entryway, neon signs and merchandise displays helped make the broadcast feel native to the toy’s universe.
The set took about a week to build. That is a helpful corrective to the idea that social content simply happens. DMM has designers, animators, editors, web developers and video producers. An apparently informal encounter can require the coordination of a small television production. Clients buy that coordination along with the finished material.
- Find the attachmentA character, creator or shared obsession.
- Give it a formatA choice, a conversation, a broadcast.
- Keep showing upPublish, reply, learn and adjust.
Editorial interpretation of DMM’s public campaign examples.
Why games belong in this story
The same skill travels into gaming. DMM’s work for NetEase’s Marvel Rivals used hero backstories and costume reveals to give players talking points before launch. For Pax Dei, community managers relayed player feedback around a Discord integration. Here, the conversation can inform the product as well as promote it.
Creator Lab adds another route into these communities. DMM describes it as an influencer division supported by proprietary technology that matches brands with creators through existing affinity. Its services span ambassador programs and niche creator seeding. The premise is sensible: someone who already cares about a property has a different starting point from someone handed a brief yesterday.
What the buyer was buying
Keywords Studios announced its purchase of DMM in March 2023. Initial consideration was $67.5 million, with up to $32.5 million contingent on performance. That is acquisition consideration. The filing reported about $34 million in 2022 revenue and $8.5 million in EBITDA. Those historical figures give the business a firmer outline than an undated database estimate.
Keywords gained social expertise, short-form production and creator relationships alongside its existing entertainment services. DMM fits the market as a specialist agency with an integrated production operation. Clients can also assemble separate creative, influencer and media suppliers, or build an internal team. DMM’s proposition is to bring those functions into the same campaign conversation.
“There's not a lot of red tape to go and launch something new.”Ryan Bitzer, CEO / Agency Side, March 2026
The part you can borrow
A practical starting point is to ask what a fan would enjoy doing, then design the follow-up before publishing the invitation. That requires material worth sharing, access to the property and people empowered to respond. Slow approvals or an audience with little interest will blunt the effect. A mentor selection works because Spider-Man already means something.
Scale also changes the work. In a March 2026 interview, CEO Ryan Bitzer described creative shaped around different audiences as platforms distribute beyond an account’s followers. The invitation has to make sense to whoever encounters it. DMM’s examples suggest a useful discipline: make the first interaction enjoyable, and give the next one somewhere to go.